One of the most underrated aspects of health is sleep. One would think that sleep would be an automatic part of life – just do it and forget it. But many studies link sleep problems with disease, something that LifeNuts choose to avoid by adopting a proactive lifestyle. First of all, what is the ideal amount of sleep? The National Sleep Foundation recommends that most adults need between seven and nine hours of sleep every night. Yes, some may require nine while others would need only seven. If you’re trying to get by on seven hours and feel drowsy all day, try getting eight hours and see how you feel. Or, if you can, take a 30-minute nap around midday. Infants and young children take naps since they need much more sleep. Even teenagers need close to nine hours. The problem, of course, is that our busy schedules make us cram 25 hours into a 24-hour day. We need an extra hour or two and so we sleep less so that we can accomplish more. However, too little sleep can cause problems. And, for those who think they can sleep five hours a night on weekdays and “catch up”on weekends, that doesn’t work, either. Since the 1960s when the average American slept for eight and a half hours a night, the average amount of sleep has dropped each decade. In 2011 the average American slept less than seven hours a night.

Let’s examine the causes of poor sleep.1. Obesity. Excessive fat around the throat makes breathing difficult and can lead to sleep apnea. Solution: get fit.2. Genetic. Some people have genes that cause sleep disruption. Researchers have identified some of these and are continuing to look for solutions.3. Caffeine, nicotine, alcohol within two hours of bedtime. Yes, that glass of wine right before bed will disrupt the level of sleep, leading to more frequent episodes of REM (rapid eye movement). Alcohol disturbs sleep rhythmns.4. Bringing emotional problems to bed. OK, you’ve just argued with your spouse and you’ve gone to bed without having solved the argument. What happens? You toss and turn, dwelling on the problem as your heart pounds. Solution: solve the problem and relax in the last hour before bed.5. You’re not tired. One hour of intense exercise, ideally in the morning, afternoon, or early evening, should help to tire you out. 6. You’ve just finished watching a cops-and-criminals TV show and your heart’s still pounding. Solution: relax one hour before bed.7. You like to eat late, often within a few hours of bed. Sorry, digesting a large meal requires energy, which your body uses. At bedtime, you want be relaxed, not energized. If you need a bedtime snack, keep it small and fat-free.8. Various bedtimes. Your body likes routine and it likes the same sleep rhythm each day. Changing this rhythm usually causes problems with sleep. However, sometimes in traveling you’ll change time zones, which may affect when darkness falls. If you’ll be in the new location for more than a few days, you may want to switch your bedtime to the new time zone. Typically if I’m out of town and only two or three time zones away, I’ll stay on my same sleep cycle. If I’m gone for more than a week, I’ll switch to the new time zone. But I will always try to go to bed at the same time and get 7-8 hours of sleep (which works for me).Next, what are problems with too little sleep?1. A study revealed that poor sleep causing high levels of insulin resistance can lead to diabetes, especially in teens. In the October issue of the journal Sleep, University of Pittsburgh researchers published a study that examined sleep patterns of 245 high school students. Average nightly sleep was 6.4 hours (less on weekday nights). They found that teens who increased their nightly sleep by one hour became more resistant to diabetes. Teens need about nine hours a night.2. Obesity. You’d think that too much sleep would lead to weight gain but the opposite is true. If we’re sleep deprived, our appetite hormones malfunction. Leptin, the hormone that control appetite, decreases and ghrelin, the eating-stimulation hormone rises. Result: we eat more and usually gain weight.3. Heart disease. There are many studies connecting high blood pressure and release of stress hormones with too little sleep, leading to heart disease and early death.4. Headaches. People who are sleep deprived often have headaches, although the mechanism isn’t clear.5. Attention lapses and delayed reaction times. Yes, if we’re sleep deprived and groggy during the day – either on the job or behind the wheel – bad things can happen. The Exxon Valdez oil spill was lined to daytime drowsiness. And, if you’re dead tired driving home, you risk not only your own life but those of others as well.6. Researchers in the U.K. published a study in 2010 in the journal Sleep that showed that people who get too little and too much sleep are at risk for an early death. Especially men with sleep apnea.How about too much sleep?Well, few people have the time to sleep too much these days. With demanding jobs, raising children, or caring for aging parents, Americans are always trying to squeeze more hours out of a day. But an adult getting more than nine hours of sleep may be at risk for the following.1. Depression. Only about 15% of depressed people oversleep. Usually it’s insomnia.2. Heart disease. The famous Nurses Health Study examined 72,000 women and found that women who slept 9-11 hours a night were 38% more likely to have coronary artery disease than those who slept eight hours a night.3. Death. Many studies have shown a connection between more than nine hours of sleep a night with higher death rates.4. Diabetes, obesity, and headaches. All have been linked with sleeping over nine hours a night. Now, you may know individuals who claim they get by just fine with four to five hours of sleep. This famous speaker or that well-known best-selling author explains how he or she goes to bed at midnight and gets up at 4 A.M. so that he or she can accomplish so much more in a day. Really? Well the research does not paint a rosy picture for these people and many times all that glitters is not gold. Scientists estimate that five percent of the population can function well on five hours of sleep. But is it in their best interest? LifeNuts sleep well and wake up, energized for a full day.